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V 



ORATION 



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.1. WARREN KEIFER 

RT THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE 

OF 

JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, 

WASHINGTON, D. C, 
(May 12th, 188?.) 



Mr. President, Comrades, Countrymen : 

On this spot, in the shadow of the National 
Capitol, and hard by the memorials of our illus- 
trious dead, it is fitting that this enduring statue 
of James Abram Garfield should stand. 

The statue we unveil to-day, silently to take its 
place among the many others here, is not alone 
in honor of a citizen distinguished for good qual- 
ities of head and heart ; nor alone to a scholar 
eminent for his attainments ; nor alone to a sol- 
dier renowned for bravery and successful high 
command ; nor alone to a statesman and politician 
as wise and prudent as he was outspoken and 
bold ; nor yet alone to a Chief Magistrate who 
wielded the scepter of power in the interests of 
the citizen ; but to one who combined within 
himself all these various characters and illustrated 
all these qualities in a single life. 



This statue is mainly a tribute from General 
Garfield's immediate companions of the Army of 
the Cumberland with which he served, and in 
which as Chief of Staff, he bore so conspicuous a 
part. But though love, born of camp, bivouac 
and battle, prompted its erection, yet, in a larger 
sense it is the nation's tribute to the memory of 
a citizen, educator, soldier, statesman and ruler. 

The artist (J. Q. A. Ward, of New York) typ- 
ifies and symbolizes General Garfield's character- 
istics on the base of this monument in three 
principal phases of his life — those of student, 
warrior and statesman. 

Recognizing that Garfield, at an early age, as 
in all after life, was a student, the artist, by the 
figure of a youth in primitive dress and in a 
thoughtful, studious attitude poring over some 
problem written on a piece of bark, represents 
him as struggling with obstacles which he is yet 
determined to overcome. 

The soldier phase of Garfield's life — when the 
appeal was made from eloquence and argument 
to the sword and when he stood forth to repel 
force with force — the sculptor symbolizes by the 
muscular figure of a warrior in ancient German 
costume, who, roused by the trumpet's call, grasps 
his sword for action. The costume points the 



-3" 



observer to the vigorous Saxon origin of Gar- 
field's ancestry, and suggests force. 

The third figure on the base represents him as 
a statesman in repose, suggestive of the "calm 
majesty of the law " — unswerving integrity ; wis- 
dom to frame just laws and courage to support 
them. This figure is draped in costume, more 
refined and classic, indicating an intellectual 
domination. 

In these figures the pliant sensibility of youth, 
the force of manhood, and the calm repose of 
knowledge and power, are singularly exemplified. 
These qualities were retained in the character of 
General Garfield to the close of his life. 

The principal statue represents him in the act 
of public speaking — delivering his inaugural ad- 
dress as President of the United States ; but not 
confined alone to this particular occasion or inci- 
dent. The attitude and gesture given the figure 
are intended to be characteristic of the moment 
when he would close an emphatic period in any 
public speech. 

The artist has expressed much of the force, 
firmness and strong convictions of the man who 
intelligently and enthusiastically labored for his 
country and who felt the weight of his responsi- 
bility for the trusts assumed by him. 



—4— 

The eye of the learned in art will readily dis- 
cover in the monument many other suggestions 
of the natural qualities possessed by General 
Garfield. 

This heroic figure is not an idol to be worshiped, 
but a model of perfect manhood ; not physical 
alone, but with all the outward semblance that 
man, in the sublime image of his Creator, pre- 
sents, of the God-like intellect and the immortal 
soul within. It is in the similitude of the " tem- 
ple of God in man." 

There is represented the strong arm of power ; 
the swift foot of freedom ; the heaving breast of 
majesty ; the towering brow of independence. 

Signifying so much, the statue is worthy to 
stand here through the cycles of time, exemplify- 
ing the virtues of a great life and pointing out to 
the sons and daughters of the Republic the high- 
way to happiness and success. 

To enable us to decide what manner of man 
President Garfield was, he must be tried by the 
standards of greatness of his own day. 

All is relative in this world. To be great or 
to achieve greatness in his time required higher 
moral and mental qualities than were requisite in 
any other era of the world's history. To be es- 

m 

teemed a worthy citizen in the time and of the 



—5— 

country in which he lived, a man must be pos- 
sessed of more fulness of life, more generosity of 
soul and more love for his fellowmen than was 
accounted necessary to good citizenship in past 
generations. Citizenship in our country includes 
sovereignty and power, or capacity to command 
or direct the affairs of state. 

More is expected, more is required and more 
is essential to make a good citizen of our consti- 
tutional free government than is or was ever ex- 
pected and required or is or ever was essential to 
constitute a good citizen or subject of any other 
government on earth. 

A citizen of our country must be filled with the 
philanthropy incident to the perfected civilization, 
grown up over the grave of the barbarism of the 
dead past. He must also, in his life, exemplify the 
teachings of the Christian religion as it has shone 
with increased resplendency upon the world 
through nineteen centuries. 

To be an educator, equal to the age in which 
Garfield lived, a man must drink deeper of the 
fountains of knowledge than was necessary for 
others, distinguished for knowledge, who lived 
before him. He must explore all the fields of 
science, history and literature to become a learned 
man of his day. 



— 6— 

To be a soldier capable of meeting the require- 
ments of this epoch in the world's progress, mere 
natural genius to command will not suffice. 
The warrior must know the science and art of war 
as it has developed abreast of all the inventions 
in arms, armor, projectiles and materials of war. 
What was strategy or grand tactics in the days 
of Alexander the Great, the Caesars and even in 
the more recent time of Napoleon and Welling- 
ton, would count for little in a modern campaign 
or on a modern field of battle. 

It must not be forgotten that our recent war 
was waged with ferocity and fatality far in excess 
of most other wars. The dead lists prove this. 

A single battle of the rebellion resulted fre- 
quently in more casualties, in either contending 
army, than in all the campaigns of some former 
prolonged wars. The killed and wounded in a 
single brigade, during the war, frequently out- 
numbered the American killed and wounded in 
the seven years of the Revolution. 

Many of the comrades now before me saw 
more of the terrors of bloody conflict in a single 
day, than were witnessed in the whole military 
life of General Washington. 

The wise and worthy statesman of this Union, 
in the afternoon of this century, besides being 



—7— 

possessed of all the estimable qualities of useful 
citizenship, must be equipped with a political 
knowledge coextensive with the history of gov- 
ernments, ancient and modern, both republican 
and monarchical in form. 

The citizen-sovereigns of the United States, 
being individually capable of self-government, 
are, as a consequence, exacting of those, who, for 
the time being, are at the head of affairs. 

The people of this purified Union being imbued 
with a spirit of personal integrity, demand of the 
statesman, freedom from corruption, and an ex- 
alted policy in keeping with their own lofty 
character. 

The ideal statesman must be scrupulously 
careful of the peoples personal and property 
rights and privileges, broad and philanthropic 
enough to promote universal education and the 
arts and sciences; and with heart enough to 
amply provide for the comfort of the unfortunate 
through public charitable institutions. 

Under our constitutional form of government 
the defined functions of the President would 
seem to limit his power for evil or for good. 
This may be true, in a certain sense, yet our 
Chief Magistrate, for the duration of his term, 
impresses upon the whole country much of his 



individual character, and, if so disposed, he could 
oppress the people and render them unhappy. 
Besides being the Chief Executive officer and 
Commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the 
United States, he is, through the veto power, 
given by the constitution, a factor in national 
legislation equivalent to one-sixth of each House 
of Congress. 

Garfield lived in an age and country where 
pure patriotism stamped the citizen with the 
majesty of greatness more than in any other age 
or government. 

A nation without battle-fields would be devoid 
of patriotism — and a nation without patriotism in 
the people's breasts, is a feeble one and is 
doomed to a short life. 

Art and letters may satisfy restless genius, but 
physical heroism is necessary to inspire patriotism. 

The history of the empires of the world, that 
have risen and passed away, affords many exam- 
ples where national decay, precursor to ultimate 
overthrow, dates from the time when painting, 
music, sculpture, the fine arts and letters were 
preferred to the pursuits of war. 

The flag of the Union and the integrity of the 
nation were saved by the blood of a heroic peo- 
ple at a cost of untold treasure. The times and 



—9— __ 

institutions of the Government demanded a high 
type of patriotic manhood. 

Humanly speaking-, President Garfield was 
morally, mentally and physically a perfect man ; 
and, if in his nature he had faults, they only 
served to demonstrate his predominating good 
qualities. 

He was born November 19, 1831, and died 
September 19th, 1881. 

Almost fifty years, taken from the middle part 
of this eventful century, were covered by his life. 

How singularly momentous were these years 
when contemplated in the light of this nation's 
material growth, and the world's advancement ! 

Discoveries of science, profundity of learning, 
progress in government, inventions, explorations, 
growth in civilization, and in moral and mental 
stature, advancement in civil and religious liberty, 
all marked the period covered. Born to no high 
title, he was trammeled by no expectancy. 

He won his titles of nobility upon life's battle- 
fields. He had no superiority thrust upon him, 
save such as is incident to the sovereignty of 
freedom, and hence he had the glory of person- 
ally achieving everything for himself. 

His birthright was freedom, and right loyally 
he clung to it to the end. 



— IO — 

He was born of parents, who gave to him the 
heritage of a sound body, a sound brain, together 
with zeal and energy to use both, and a lauda- 
ble spirit to be distinguished among the good 
and illustrious through true merit. 

He had also the supreme advantage of being 
reared by a pious mother in the seclusion and 
quiet of the country, free from the enfeebling 
conditions of city life. The frequent solitude of 
the country boy compels him to think, and if of 
fair natural aptitude, to become an independent 
and accurate thinker. 

He grew to manhood in far from affluent cir- 
cumstances, acquiring habits of industry and 
economy, and, by mingling with the people, be- 
came familiar with their wants and needs. Thus 
his early experience made him wise and strong 
in the vocations of after-life. 

General Garfield early developed a natural in- 
clination for learning and investigation. 

The physical labor performed by him in early 
life crystallized him into perfect physical man- 
hood. 

His head was east in a large moid, like Daniel 
Webster's, with a breadth of brow and a weight 
of brain resembling Michael Angelo's. 

In the transition from humble birth to the 



1 1 



highest position in life, he singularly exemplified 
his own beauriful description of the inestimable 
advantages of our institutions : 

Our society, (said he) resembles rather the waves of the ocean, 
whose every drop may move freely among its billows, and may 
rise toward the light until it Hashes on the crest of the highest wave. 

As a teacher of the young his clearness of com- 
prehension and logical reasoning, his enthusiasm 
in pursuit of knowledge, together with his won- 
derful descriptive powers, insured his success. 
These qualities characterized him through life, 
and when called on to instruct, convince and 
sway the multitudes in turbulent times, or to 
control legislative bodies on momentous occa- 
sions, he was master of the situation. 

He did not refuse to ascend the pulpit, and as 
a devout follower of his Divine Master become a 
preacher of our holy religion. 

I lad he not matured at a time when a great 
crisis was imminent in our government and 
especially had not the great moral problem 
growing out of human slavery been ripe for solu- 
tion by legislation and war, there is good reason 
to believe that Garfield would have contented 
himself with permanently devoting his life to 
education, literature or the pulpit. 

In a letter to a friend at the opening of the 
war, Garfield gives the state of his mind while he 



12 — 



was being metamorphosed from a citizen into a 
soldier: 

I have, (he says) had a curious interest in watching the process 
in my own mind, by which the frabic of my mind is being demol- 
ished and reconstructed to meet the new condition of affairs. One 
by one my old plans and aims, modes of thought and feeling, are- 
found to be inconsistent with present duty, and are set aside to give 
place to the new structure ot military life. It is not without a re- 
gret, almost tearful at times, that I look upon the ruins. But if, 
as the result of the broken plans and shattered individual lives of 
thousands of American citizens, we can see, on the ruins of our 
national errors, a new and enduring fabric arise, based on larger 
freedom and higher justice, it will be a small sacrifice indeed. For 
myself I am contented with such a prospect, and regarding my life 
as given to the country, am only anxious to make as much of it as 
possible before the mortgage upon it is foreclosed. 

He promptly took a stand among the anti- 
slavery men. This led him into politics early in 
life. Immediately preceding the war — (i860 and 
1 861) he held a seat in the Ohio Senate and 
there grave evidence of his future greatness as a 
statesman. 

When the torch of treason lighted up this land 
the voice of the statesman was drowned amid 
the tumult of war. 

Concession and compromise had been tried in 
vain to perpetuate the Union and at the same 
time preserve a wrong against God and humanity. 
Seventy years of constitutional goverment had 
more than sufficed to prove the impossibility of 
living, under one rule, half slave and half free. 

Slavery, in efforts to foster itself, was neces- 
sarily aggressive. Wrong always is aggressive, 



—13— 

and so long as it dominates, it must even, in a 
sense, be progressive. 

The timid of the North and South stood 
aghast over the prospect of a dissolved Union; 
the thoughtless brave precipitated the crisis ; the 
thoughtful lovers of liberty and country, filled 
with faith in God's immutable justice, paused, 
then passed at once from peaceful citizens to 
warriors. 

General Garfield, with no military education or 
training, with thoughts and aspirations thitherto 
directed to natural science and the arts of peace, 
now found himself impelled by zeal for his coun- 
try's safety to take up the science and art of war. 
He was commissioned Colonel of the 42d Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry, to rank from August 14th, 
1 86 1. His regiment was not completely mus- 
tered into service until November 27th, 1 86 1 . 
Twenty days after, in midwinter, it was moving 
to active service. 

On the 20th of December, 1861, he assumed 
command of a brigade and entered upon a cam- 
paign in Eastern Kentucky against General 
Humphrey Marshall, an officer of experience in 
more than one war, who held a position, with 
5,000 men, on the Big Sandy River. With the 
skill and celerity of a veteran of many campaigns, 



—14— 

Colonel Garfield hurled his small, undrilled com- 
mand upon his adversary, passing over bad 
roads, through a strange and unfriendly country, 
and on the 8th and ioth of January, 1862, at 
Paintville and Prestonburg, respectively, attacked 
and defeated the enemy, and thus within twenty 
days after his command was organized, closed a 
campaign of much immediate importance ; the 
first of a series of brilliant triumphs that carried 
our arms to the Cumberland and the Tennessee. 
For this he was commissioned by the President 
Brigadier General of Volunteers to rank from 
January ioth, 1862. 

This incident in the military life of General 
Garfield demonstrates his soldierly qualities and 
shows his ready adaptation to great emergencies, 
and illustrates the facility with which the free 
citizen may be transformed into a good soldier. 

War, notwithstanding its barbaric scenes; has 
always brought out the better, stronger and 
higher characteristics and talents in man. 

The higher the types of civilization a country 
can boast, the more readily it can adapt itself to 
a state of war. If not renowned as a leader of 
a great and successful army, General Garfield 
was a citizen soldier superior to his opportunities 
in a supreme emergency. 



—15— 

He was transferred from the scenes of his first 
military triumph, in March, 1862, to the main 
army of the Ohio, and participated in the second 
day's battle at Shiloh. 

He took part in the eventful campaigns in the 
spring and summer of 1862, and performed, that 
year, much military service. In January, 1863, 
becoming Chief of Staff to General Rosecrans at 
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, he at once became 
charged with military duties upon a more ex- 
tended scale. In this capacity he served through 
all the campaigns of that army till October, 1863. 

"For distinguished and gallant services in the 
battle of Chickamauga," he was, by President 
Lincoln made a Major-General, to rank from 
September 19th, 1863. 

He resigned this commission December 5th, 
1863, to enter upon the duties of Representative 
in the 38th Congress, to which he had been 
elected, in 1862. 

From General Garfield himself I have this in- 
cident : Regretting his election to Congress, and 
the consequent necessity of withdrawing from 
the army, he went in person to President Lincoln 
and so informed him, and expressed to the Pres- 
ident his purpose not to resign his Major Gener- 
al's commission, and asked to be a<»ain assigned 



i6- 



to duty in the field. The President listened at- 
tentively to his statement, then kindly took him 
by the hand and said : " I can make another 
Major General, but I cannot make another Rep- 
resentative, and at this juncture the goverment 
stands in need of heroic statesmen as well as 
brave soldiers." The President then added that 
he could not be spared from Congress. The 
Presidents wish changed the General's deter- 
mination, and his resignation from the army was 
at once tendered and accepted. 

Brilliant and promising as his army service 
was, he was about to enter upon a higher career 
of usefulness in which he was, in the years to 
come, to be ranked among the foremost states- 
men of his own or any other country. 

When Garfield first stood upon the floor of 
the House of Representatives he was but thirty- 
two years of age. In that House were many 
trained parliamentarians and educated statesmen 
of long experience. With these he was at once 
to cope. In keeping with his army experience, 
he opened his legislative career both valiantly 
and well. During the almost two years of war, 
slavery still held its citadel. President Lincoln 
was just then poising his pen to write the Proc- 
lamation of Emancipation, war's decree of liberty. 



— n— 

General Garfield's history as a statesman can 
only be referred to here. His speeches and re- 
ports, touching all the living" leading questions of 
the day, may be mainly found in the public rec- 
ords covering a period of eighteen consecutive 
years of congressional labor. 

These were years of marvelous industry for 
General Garfield, who was ambitious, and zealous 
in the discharge of duty. During most of these 
years he bore the heat and burden of legislative 
rencounter, in debate, and did toilsome work at the 
head of principal committees. He flew from his 
arduous legislative duties to the people and on 
all the momentous issues of the day, with that 
mighty power of oratory possessed by him, per- 
suaded them to uphold the hands of the govern- 
ment through each recurring crisis. 

He early favored the amendment to the Con- 
stitution of the United States abolishing slavery. 
Slavery in its day, especially here in this beauti- 
ful Capital City, exhibited itself in its worst, most 
defiant and dangerous form. Within the limit 
of the sound of my voice, was to be seen, when 
the war began, the slave auctioneers pen and 
block, wherein and whereon the bodies and souls 
of men, women and children, bearing the image 
of God, were bought and sold. 



— 18— 

Here, on this consecrated ground, where now 
only notes of freedom are heard, there was then 
heard the agonizing wail of the slave-mother 
weeping for her children. 

Here, not long before the war, Daniel Drayton 
was tried in a Court of Justice (?) and convicted 
of larceny, his crime consisting in setting men 
and women free. 

Here, in pulpit and forum, priests and states- 
men argued that slavery was of divine right. 
Holy writ w r as invoked to deny a law- of the 
human soul. The Bible was quoted to prove it 
a Book of Death ; not a Book of Life. 

Even the originally designed Statue of Liberty 
crowning yonder dome of the Capitol did not 
escape the desecrating hand of one of slavery's 
votaries. The then Secretary of War* (1856), 
ordered struck from the sculptor Crawford's 
model of that statue, the " liberty cap," because 
that cap, in art, had an " established origin in its 
use, as a badge of the freed slave." Slavery, 
jealously watching to suppress even the sem- 
blance of the emblems of liberty, feared that the 
"liberty cap," a symbol of freedom in art, though 
in bronze, would point the slave to freedom. A 
nondescript-hood, meaningless in art or nature, 
was, under official orders, reluctantly substituted 

"Jefferson Davis. 



— 19— 

by the artist. General Garfield's appeal in Con- 
gress to the lovers of slavery, to surrender their 
idol, while the amendment to abolish it was under 
consideration, is filled with sublimity. On Jan- 
uary 13th, 1865, in closing his last speech on that 
question, he said : 

To me it is a matter of great surprise that gentlemen on the 
other side should wish to delay the death of slavery. I can only 
account for it on the ground of long continued familiarity and 
friendship. I should be glad to hear them say of slavery, their be- 
loved, as did the jealous Moor — "yet she must die, else shell betray 
more men." 

Has she not betrayed and slain men enough ? Is not the Moloch 
already gorged with the bloody feast ? Its best friends know that 
its final hour is fast approaching. The avenging gods are on its 
track. Their feet are not now, as of old, shod with wool, nor slow 
and stately stepping, but winged like Mercury's to bear the swift 
message of vengeance. No human power can avert the final 
catastrophe. 

How true and prophetic these words were ! 

With Lincoln, Stevens and others, long since 
registered with the immortal dead, Garfield wit- 
nessed the death of slavery. 

He supported the 14th amendment, secur- 
ing citizenship to all; also the 15th, giving uni- 
versal suffrage. His voice and vote were for all 
the important measures of reconstruction. They 
were for the unity of the Republic ; for universal 
amnesty ; for equal rights ; for equal laws ; for 
protection to the lowly and for the elevation of 
the human race. Next to these things he favored 
legislation looking to the prosperity of the nation 
financially. In any crisis in Congress or before 



— 2( 



the people his voice was to be heard appealing 
for justice to the oppressed, and for the preserva- 
tion of the nation's honor. 

If he were absent in an impending danger to 
his country, his friends would cry as the host of 
Clan Alpine at the battle of Beal an Duine : 

" One blast upon his bugle horn were worth a 
thousand men." 

We are yet too near the events of the war, and 
the immediately succeeding reconstruction meas- 
ures, to judge them and their fruits according to 
their importance; likewise we are too near our 
hero and others of his day to do him and them 
and their deeds complete justice. 

They were great among the great things and 
events of their day, and consummately great in 
comparison with great men of other days. Men 
ealled great in earlier times often won their claim 
to fame by deeds that would be insignificant in 

this age. 

As a public debater Garfield excelled. He 
was a splendid scholar, a fine rhetorician; as a 
writer he had rare powers, but it was his singular 
good fortune to be able to think and come up to 
his supremest intellectual strength on his feet, 
under the excitement of public speech, rather 
than with his pen when in his seat. His speeches 



21 

were not distinguished for florid rhetorieal dis- 
play, but rather for strong", eoncise statements 
which in themselves were better than ordinary 
arguments. Facts well summarized he knew the 
value of and therefore used them as the basis of 
all his oratorical powers. Often his best friends 
appealed to him not to correct the notes of his 
speeches, lest in his desire to conform his lang- 
uage to the highest standard of refined rhetoric 
and purest diction, he would leave them shorn of 
some portion of their power and strength. 

Garfield was by nature left-handed, and some- 
times on great occasions when he rose to speak, 
he at first seemed awkward. This all disappeared 
as his genius flashed out in his fervid, masterly 
treatment of his subject. He then appeared an 
oratorical giant — a superb human machine in 
action, delightful to behold. His gestures were 
mainly with his open uplifted left hand, and 
made emphatic by striking it down, sometimes 
clenched, into his open upturned right hand. He 
had a magnificent voice, resonant, well modulated, 
full, under complete control, capable on occasions 
of great vehemence, yet always pleasant to the 
ear. 

He was not fitful or uncertain in his speeches. 
He commanded attention always, and by reason 



22 

of careful preparation and versatility of learning, 
never spoke without impressing' his hearers with 
new ideas. 

I lis whole soul was aflame and concentrated 
in his oratory; and though a most frequent par- 
ticipant in debate, his mind lit up uniformly, and 
made him always seem at his best. He was 
never dull and prosy; but always spoke with en- 
thusiasm and generally with vehemence. 

He loved legislative and parliamentary con- 
troversy, but he loved still more, by his great 
persuasive power of oratory, to sway the masses. 

His speeches every where attest his greatness. 
They are argumentative, full of facts, persuasive, 
captivating, sympathetic and instructive. His 
antagonists fell by the precision of his blows and 
from the weight of his metal. 

His orations over the dead in the Halls of 
Congress are numerous. He ranged the whole 
field of personal eulogies and gleaned the choicest 
gems to bestow as tributes to the memory of his 
dead friends. It was his custom to refer to the 
old Hall of the House of Representatives in the 
Capitol, which contains so many marble statues 
of America's illustrious men, as t( The third House 
wherein the dead spake." 

In due time, as this nation grows older, the 



—23— 

forest of statues of the distinguished dead <jath- 
ered in this beautiful city, will be spoken of as 
the mute power in the nation's capital. 

He was in no way an uneven man. The 
quality and fiber of his mind were good. Its 
warp and woof were alike uniform and strong. 
He was ambitious, but his aspirations were laud- 
able ; and his genius, equal to his ambition, en- 
abled him to reach the summit of well earned 
fame. 

His natural desire for distinction was not such 
as to goad him to strive for it at the expense of 
his fellowmen. He would have rejected a crown 
or a diadem for his own head, if it could only be 
worn at the expense of the people's welfare. 

His ambition did not manifest itself in selfish- 
ness. He was unselfish in his estimate of others. 
In the struggle for place or power among men, 
it is not always easy, nor perhaps possible, for 
all men to see the full worth of others who may 
be rivals. 

To General Garfield this was in an eminent 
degree possible, and it seemed often that the 
success of others gave him more gratification 
than did his own ; and his own work was not to 
eclipse others, but to reach the high and worthy 
standards he had placed before himself. 



m -24— .__ 

He was social by nature, possessing the high- 
est conversational powers, whether with an indi- 
vidual or in the family or social circle. He was 
respectful and gentle to all ; though he gave little 
heed to the mere forms of politeness or etiquette 
when in society. He was always too busy with 
momentous affairs or in pursuit of knowledge to 
give much attention to purely social matters. 

He had no rough element in his character. 
His kindly nature made him shrink from personal 
brawls and conflicts, though always possessed of 
great physical powers. He was more disposed 
to yield to the demands of an imperious or dom- 
inating friend, than to contend with him, though 
in the right. 

When calm in spirit, his utterances were quiet, 
and would be soothing to the nerves of the most 
timid ; but when moved by the storm of indig- 
nation or required by the sacredness of duty, 
his voice could be raised above the din, tumult 
and thunder of battle. 

He belonged to the common cast of man, 
rather than to that dangerous class of exceptional 
geniuses. His genius was of the true kind, and 
belonged to him as part of his perfectly rounded 
manhood. He did not seek to "ride upon the 
whirlwind and direct the storm." 



—25— 

He was a thinker, rather than an agitator. 

He was a patron of advanced science, and was 
never known to withhold his support from any 
measure that would promote it. He did not de- 
spise, but delighted in, details, and no investiga- 
tion was irksome to him, which promised to 
reveal a hitherto unknown principle or law of 
nature. Yonder National Museum, already 
bursting its walls with the rarest collections of 
inestimable interest to the historian and the 
scientist, is a monument to his wise forethought 
As a Regent of the Smithsonian Institute for 
many successive years he did much to promote 
investigation and to disseminate useful knowl- 
edge. He always advocated liberal aid to char- 
itable institutions. His soul thrilled with a 
Divine delight, when through public and private 
instruction he heard the dumb speak; and his 
generosity and philanthropy was so moved that 
he would willingly have poured out for their re- 
lief all the treasures of earth, had they been at 
his command. Jesus had caused the dumb to 
speak and the deaf to hear in the mountains of 
Judea, but the ambition of our hero-philanthropist 
became so great that he believed the time was 
near at hand when the deaf and dumb of all the 
nations of the world could be made to speak. 



—26— 

Through public benefaction he would bring de- 
light and joy to: 

'' The ear sequestrate, and the tuneless tongue." 

If miracles could no longer be performed, by 
which the eyes of the blind could be opened and 
the distempered spirits of the insane could be 
forthwith cured, he at least believed in substitut- 
ing for the blind the sight of knowledge, and for 
the maniac the sanctuary of comfortable repose, 
reigned over by tender God-like care. 

The unfortunate of all classes had, in him, a 
friend and advocate at the seat of power. 

The soldier or sailor of the Union, who had 
laid the hopes and joys of this world upon his 
country's altar, and, with broken health and body, 
still lingered in suffering for the end to come, 
had an especial friend in him. He sought assid- 
uously to bind up the wounds of the suffering and 
to care for the nation's wards : the widows and 
orphans left by the war. 

Garfield had a deep religious nature. He be- 
lieved in the immortality of the soul ; in the Bible ; 
in a Savior of the world ; in God. He believed 
in doing good. Learning from the example of 
Christ, who fed the hungry before he ministered 
to them, he believed in satisfying the suffering 
people before requiring much in return. 



—27— 

General Garfield studied and practiced law, 
though no considerable portion of his life was 
given to that noble profession. He, however, 
appeared in some important cases in the Supreme 
Court of the United States and in other courts, 
and made law arguments worthy of his erudition. 
Had he devoted his time to the jealous mistress 
of the law he would have doubtless become as 
eminent before the bar as in the forum. 

General Garfield was strong in tempest as well 
as in fair weather. Preserving his equanimity 
when others did not, but through no indifference, 
he would, on special occasions, calmly assume 
responsibilities others shrank from. 

As Chief of Staff at the Headquarters of the 
Army of the Cumberland, he counseled an early 
aggressive movement on the enemy, against the 
judgment of the Commanding General and 
nearly all the corps and division commanders of 
that army. In this was exhibited in a peculiar 
light the bold and independent spirit of a man 
ready to act when all around him hesitated, and 
willing to stand or fall by the event. 

When Lincoln was murdered, the people in 
the great cities, awe-struck at first, soon changed 
into a fury of indignation, threatening to rise up 
and avenge the monster crime. General Garfield 



—28— 

was in the metropolis (New York) of the Repub- 
lic. I Ie there witnessed the swaying, tumultuous 
masses, tempest tossed with indignation, and 
with fear for our government. Majestically 
and calmly he viewed the threatening, stormy 
scene. He knew the awful power of the uncon- 
trolled and unguided people. 

Standing in their presence, with head uncov- 
ered, hands uplifted and face turned heavenward, 
in solemn, reverential voice he proclaimed: 

" God reigns ; and the Government at Washington 
still lives ! " 

He thus, invoking the Supreme power, in im- 
itation of the Son of God, who stilled the tempest 
on the Sea of Galilee nineteen hundred years 
before, stilled the tempest raging over that sea of 
humanity, and with his words echoing from ocean 
shore to shore, brought peace and hope to the 
troubled spirits of his countrymen. 

He had his enemies, some personal and more 
political. He had done too much good not to 
incur the displeasure of the devotees of evil. He 
had, through honesty and personal integrity, at- 
tained too exalted a place in the hearts of his 
countrymen not to incite the envy and jealousy 
of those, whose highest ambition in life and whose 
hopes for popular recognition rest upon their 



—29— 

ability to defame and assassinate the charaeter of 
others. He was at times violently, unjustly, yea, 
cruelly assailed. lie knew, however, that such 
enemies were like the discriminating mongrel- 
curs that neglect to bark at the slow moving 
freight train, but become fiercely demonstrative 
at the flying express. He was strengthened by 
these assaults as the sturdy oak is strengthened 
by the storms of Heaven careening through its 
boughs. Through all the assaults, born of envy 
and jealousy, which were made upon him, he pre- 
served a heroic calmness and equanimity of 
spirit, belonging only to the truly great. 

He declined to let his enemies control his 
thoughts and actions or to disturb his plans and 
purposes ; and moved steadily on. He was, 
however, swift to forgive them. 

General Garfield was nominated and elected 
President of the United States in 1880, after a 
more than usually exciting campaign. He did 
not seek the nomination ; it came to him. 

While he did not personally enter the political 
canvass succeeding his nomination, yet, at rail- 
way stations and in response to delegations and 
committees, he made scores of short addresses, 
sublimely beautiful in sentiment, grand in thought, 
noble in ideas and sound in principle. 



— 3<>— 

lie was elected to the United States Senate 
before his nomination to the Presidency, but on 
being elected President, he resigned as Senator 
and never took his seat in that body. 

March 4th, 1881, he was inaugurated President 
of the United States. His intimate know ledge 
of all departments of the government and his ripe 
manhood qualified him for this high office, but in 
the four months, during which he exercised the 
functions of President, he had not time to deal 
with many of the graver affairs of State. The Con- 
gress was not in session during his rule. 

On July 2d, 1881, the bullet of the assassin laid 
him low. 

The joys of life of a still strongman; the most 
brilliant expectations of a man of singularly 
buoyant spirit ; the most exalted aspirations of a 
man who had ascended through his own effort to 
the highest governmental office in the world, all, 
ended with that fatal shot. His wound was 
mortal ; yet hope reigned so strongly within him 
and his will power was so great that he almost de- 
feated cruel fate. He was told he had one chance 
in a thousand for life. Buoyantly and almost 
cheerfully he said: u I will take that one chance." 

While his wound was yet bleeding, I had, in 
company with General Sherman, a last interview 



—3i— 

with him. The pallor of death was on his brow. 
His thoughts ran back to the House of Represen- 
tatives in which he had so long" served. His 
final request to me was : <l Remember me to the 
members of the old House, Keifer." 

The prayers of an outraged people ascended 
on high for his recovery. 

During eighty days of uncomplaining heroism 
he suffered ; then, by the sea, symbolic of his 
great, busy, restless, turbulent existence, with 
high duty nobly fulfilled behind him, and with 
the soundless waves of eternity before him, his 
noble life went out, and his immortal spirit 
winged its way to join his twin presidential 
martyr, his dead comrades of the army and faith- 
ful dead congressional colleagues and friends 
before the throne of God. 

My comrades : He now musters with that 
larger part of the Army of the Cumberland, who, 
having paid the penalty of devotion to cause and 
country and fulfilled life's earthly mission, have 
passed on, to join the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic beyond the grave. 

Thomas, your beloved commander, who stood, 
with his corps, as a rock of adamant, on the left 
at Chickamauga, who directed the Army of the 
Cumberland to victory up the rugged hights of 



—32— 

Missionary Ridge, and under the brilliant leader- 
ship of Sherman, with his army, held the eenter 
in the bloody campaign from Chattanooga to 
Atlanta, and at Nashville defeated and destroyed 
the last great Confederate Army in the West, is 
there ; McPherson, the gallant young commander 
of the Army of the Tennessee, who won laurels 
on many fields and who fell " booted and spurred " 
amid the clash of muskets and sabers and the 
cannon's roar, is there ; Meade, the modest, 
thoughtful soldier, who, within seven days of the 
time he was elevated to the command of the 
Army of the Potomac, met and overthrew the 
best army of the Confederacy under its idolized 
leader, Lee, at Gettysburg, and safely led his 
army through the bloody Wilderness, Spottsyl- 
vania, Cold Harbor, around Petersburg and at 
Appomattox, is there ; Hooker, who fought the 
Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville, and 
subsequently led his corps victoriously up the 
craggy steeps of Lookout Mountain, and in the 
mist and above the clouds, commingled the peals 
of battle with the thunders of the skies, is there; 
Burnside, who, while commander of the Army of 
the Potomac, gallantly fought it at Fredericks- 
burg, and who, later on, rolled back from Knox- 
ville the rebel hosts and took and held East 



m —33— • 

Tennessee, to the inexpressible joy of the Union 
people, is there ; McClellan, who fought the Army 
of the Potomae around Richmond, and defeated 
the enemy at Malvern Hill and Antietam, is 
there ; Hancock, the superb, who fought valiantly 
for the Union on many fields of blood, and es- 
pecially distinguished himself at Gettysburg, is 
there; Logan, that fiery spirit, the Chevalier 
Bayard of our war, the hero of hard fought fields 
on the Mississippi, around Vicksburg, at Chatta- 
nooga, from thence to Atlanta, is there ; Grant, 
Grant, who, from the day he caused the eagles of 
the Union to soar to victory above the ramparts 
of Fort Donelson, marshaling with cadenced step, 
later on, a million of loyal soldiers in battle array, 
to the supreme moment when he unostentatiously 
took the sword of Lee at Appomattox, was the 
central figure of the war, is there ; Farragut, who 
taught new lessons in naval warfare in taking 
forts and batteries in the mouth of the Mississippi, 
and who, lashed to the mast of his flag ship, amid 
shot and shell, sailed into Mobile Harbor at the 
head of his dauntless Meet, is also there; Foote, 
Dahlgreen, Gushing and Dupont, who each 
majestically trod the ship's deck in mortal com- 
bat, on river, lake, gulf and the billowy sea, 
are there. 



—34— 

All that long list of dead officers and soldiers 
and sailors of the army and navy of the Union 
are there. What a galaxy of heroic dead ! 

We are all soon to be there, and muster again 
as one reunited host. 

More people mourned the death of James 
Abram Garfield than ever before mourned the 
death of military hero, statesman, scholar, king, 
emperor or ruler. The fifty millions of citizens 
of this Republic stood around his bier and shed 
burning tears of sorrow ; and the good of the 
world mourned sincerly with them. Britain's 
proud Queen laid a floral tribute on his funeral 
casket. The most humble citizens of this nation 
were the sincerest mourners at his tomb. 

In the hour of the nation's deepest sorrow, how 
many, from the anguish of their souls, cried out : 
" God reigns ; and the Government at Washington 
still lives ! " 

Garfield dead ! Commanding the highest art of 
the most gifted sculptor-artist of this advanced 
age, his comrades of the field, aided by his coun- 
try, have placed this statue here in commendation 
of his good deeds in life. What he so willingly 
and so often helped to do for others of his com- 
rades, we now reverently do for him. 

Before the periods of which authentic history 



—35— *_ 

speaks ; earlier than when history blends off into 
tradition ; at the first dawn of civilization, and 
since, heroes of bloody deeds, statesmen of dis- 
tinction, emperors and kings have been perpetu- 
ated in memory by triumphal arches, statues, or 
monuments chiefly of their own creation. 

Rulers in times past have, in life, at the public 
expense reared their own monuments. 

Unlike these, this one springs from the hearts 
of a grateful people. 

Comrades : This splendid statue is worthy of 
you who conceived it, and it is worthy of the 
great sculptor who created it; and it is also 
worthy of him whose life and character is so im- 
perfectly described by me, and so grandly sym- 
bolized by the artist. 

Enduring as this bronze statue may be, the 
ruthless vandal or iconoclast may demolish it, or 
time, that destroyer of all things not fashioned 
by Omnipotence, will crumble it to dust. What 
the artist has done, and what we may do or say 
here to preserve and perpetuate his name or 
fame may pass away and be forgotten. But the 
Sun of his glory has risen, full orbed, high in the 
firmament of eternal truth and justice, there to 
shine on, and on through the ages. 

Socrates was condemned to drink the fatal cup 



-36- 

of hemlock, and thus give up his mortal body, 
but his philosophy the poison could not kill ; it 
was immortal. 

So Garfield was doomed to fall by a tatal 
bullet and thus surrender his mortal body, but 
his words and deeds did not die ; they belong to 
eternity ; they, too, are immortal. 

My comrades : Inspired by the example of our 
dead friend; conscious of having performed a 
duty, which, in the providence of God, became 
ours to perform, and knowing that we shall soon 
have to answer the final roll call on earth and 
awake to the reveille call in another world, let us 
here consecrate ourselves anew to the unfinished 
duties of life and try to be worthy and prepared 
to meet him and our dead comrades beyond the 
grave. 

My countrymen : The duties of citizen, edu- 
cator, soldier, statesman and ruler, so singularly 
fulfilled by him of whom we have spoken to-day, 
have much in them to give us courage and hope; 
much to guide and cheer us in the future. 

Grand, heroic and useful as the life of General 
Garfield was ; much as there is in it to emulate 
and follow, we must not forget that we live in 
an age of progress ; present and future duties 
being paramount to those of the past. 



■37 



Our hero cared little for past example com- 
pared with present duty ; he believed in a morn- 
ing star of progress reigning perpetually in the 
firmament of our Republic, to set, only, when : 

" * * the eternal morning. 

Pales in its glories all the lights of Time !" 

So, may we, guided and controlled by this 
bright star of progress, continue, with the best 
light within us, to perform towards our fellow- 
men and our country the full mission of the 
purest life ; remembering that — 

" New occasions teach new duties ; Time 

makes ancient good uncouth ; 
They must upward still, and onward, 

who would keep abreast of Truth ; 
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! we 

ourselves must Pilgrims be, 
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly 

through the desperate winter sea, 
Nor attempt the Future's portal with 

the Past's blood-rusted key." 



).HF« T)6 



ORATION 

AT THE 

UNVEILING OF THE STATUE 

OF 

Jambs A. Garfield 

BY 

J. Warren Keifer. 



